Facility – My TechDecisionshttps://mytechdecisions.com
The end user’s first and last stop for making technology decisionsWed, 21 Feb 2018 21:00:07 +0000en-UShourly1https://s3.amazonaws.com/techdecisions/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/21162010/cropped-TD-icon1-1-32x32.pngFacility – My TechDecisionshttps://mytechdecisions.com
3232When Will We See Facebook Fiona in Commercial Use?https://mytechdecisions.com/facility/will-see-facebook-fiona-commercial-use/
https://mytechdecisions.com/facility/will-see-facebook-fiona-commercial-use/#respondWed, 21 Feb 2018 19:00:42 +0000https://mytechdecisions.com/?p=11019After launching its Aloha and Fiona smart speakers, how long will it be before the Facebook solutions will enter the boardroom alongside Alexa and Watson.

]]>Alexa and Watson may soon be getting company in the board room, thanks to Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook will debut two residential smart speakers—dubbed Aloha and Fiona—later this year, making the burgeoning voice assistant market even more crowded.

While Fiona and her higher-end counterpart Aloha will be primarily found in homes around the world, we’ve seen enough examples of residential products finding their ways into commercial applications to know it’s only a matter of time before that happens.

“Supply chain sources said that Facebook was originally slated to release the devices in May, but has decided to reschedule the launch to allow more time for perfecting the acoustic quality of the gadgets and software modification,” according to a report in Taipai-based website Digitimes.

Designed by Facebook’s Building 8 hardware lab, the Aloha model is reportedly more sophisticated than Fiona. Both will feature 15-inch touchscreens.

“The Aloha model, to be marketed under the official name Portal, will use voice commands but will also feature facial recognition to identify users for accessing Facebook via a wide-angle lens on the front of the device,” according to the Digitimes report.

Meeting with Fiona, Aloha, Alexa and Watson

According to the market research firm Canalys, the global smart speakers market is likely to double to over 50 million units in 2018.

The true test of smart speakers and the control and automation market as a whole is how easy it is to use.

There remain myriad security concerns with these smart speakers, so it might be a while before we see widespread adoption of them, especially in the boardrooms at large corporations. But there are enough CEOs who like what they can do for them at home that they’ll be willing to take the chance to bring that convenience with them to work.

Particularly in corporate settings, though, the true test of smart speakers and the control and automation market as a whole is how easy it is to use. Integrators have the ability—and in many cases the desire—to build complex systems that have seemingly unlimited functionality.

But if the user can’t either push a single button to start their meetings, or in the case of Fiona and her counterparts from Amazon, IBM and Google, if a single voice command doesn’t kick off the gathering, it won’t be long before they’re collecting dust in the corner of the decked-out conference room with the other “top-of-the-line” technology someone bought without actually knowing how to make it work.

So will Fiona become the next iPad? I’m not a huge fan of smart speakers and don’t have a Facebook account, so I don’t plan to be the first one in line to buy it, but I’m not naïve enough to think it won’t fly off the shelves when it’s released.

It’ll be interesting to see what the next product aimed at the residential market make the leap into the commercial space. Augmented and virtual reality are both trying to make that leap, but haven’t quite gotten the traction yet. What do you think it’ll be?

]]>Recently, many of the mission-critical command and control room solutions that covered in Commercial Integrator have a very specific common trait – they involve integration of NEC Display video products with HiperWall video wall software.

There is a reason why that integration seems to lead to success stories, according to NEC Display Solutions of America VP of business development and solutions Rich Ventura. A “global partnership” is how he describes the relationship between NEC and Hiperwall, adding that NEC’s video products are integrated with Hiperwall’s video wall software in deployments around the world.

That’s “really important and key for integrators,” Ventura says, “because it’s building on an ecosystem. You’re not piece-matching a solution and hoping that it works together. This is a solution that’s tried and tested.”

Most command and control applications are mission-critical, he adds. “When we’re talking mission critical you can’t have a product that can fail, you can’t have a product that’s not displaying the information you need to have.”

Mission-Critical in the Real World

At Stony Brook University in Long Island, assistant chief of police and director of the Office of Emergency Management Lawrence M. Zacarese relies on an NEC-Hiperwall solution for its situation room. When Hurricane Sandy ripped through Long Island during fall semester 2012,prior to the implementation of the solution, the school learned how important it was to have a reliable emergency response center.

“When we’re talking mission critical you can’t have a product that can fail, you can’t have a product that’s not displaying the information you need to have,” says NEC Display’s Rich Ventura.

For integration firm Intralogic Solutions, based in Massapequa, N.Y., Hiperwall video wall software helped tie everything together reliably,says Lee Mandel, CEO “We wanted to tie in all systems into one common operating picture and not be limited based off manufacturer or vendor,” Mandel says, adding that “Hiperwall was a solution that provided unlimited capabilities without the need for expensive hardware. We were able to easily bring everything together into one organized platform.”

Not all mission-critical applications involve command and control rooms. Global satellite services provider Intelsat set out to create a network operations center environment in which it can quickly access and monitor real-time events and information on its video walls. It also leaned on NEC Displays and Hiperwall software. The Intelsat team wanted to choose the video wall themselves, and did due diligence on three different vendors before making a selection: 72 55-inch NEC Display Solutions X555UNV displays in a 3×24 configuration and Hiperwall software.

“Intelsat found the Hiperwall software through NEC Displays, so we developed this overall solution to help the company facilitate its NOC broadband and video,” said Tyler Bonner, senior vice president of the Mission-Critical Environments Division at Diversified, the integration firm on the project.

“We’ve been working with NEC Displays since 2000. The products are solid, and it’s an organization with a customer service mentality. Mission-critical facilities can’t go down, so we like to align ourselves with companies with a desire to take care of mission-critical customers.”

]]>DITEK announces the launch of the DTK- MRJEXTS surge protector, designed to be installed on the outputs of PoE Extender devices.

The DTK-MRJEXTS is a point-of-use surge protector compatible with CAT5e, CAT6 and CAT6A cabling infrastructure, and when used with STP cabling, the DTK-MRJEXTS does not require a separate earth ground, according to the company.

DITEK says the device is designed to handle data speeds up to 10GbE without signal degradation and is ready for high-wattage applications with PoE+ and Hi-PoE.

“The advanced circuitry in the DTK-MRJEXTS provides protection for PoE extender circuits,” says Jason Klein, national sales manager, DITEK. “In the event of a power surge, installing this product will ensure your PoE extender devices are not damaged or destroyed and your system will maintain operational.”

It contains shielded RJ45 connections with an external grounding screw and complies with IEEE standards 802.3af and 802.3at for PoE. It can also operate in temperatures from 40°F to 158°F and comes with a 10-year warranty.

“For businesses that make use of PoE extenders for critical systems such as access control or video surveillance, ensuring that those systems do not experience downtime due to a surge event is essential,” explains Klein. “Surges can spread easily across a PoE network, so protecting your devices helps to protect the entire organization.”

More from DITEK:

The DTK-MRJEXTS is designed to be installed on the outputs of PoE Extender devices, and features 10GbE throughput and shileded RJ45 connectors. This point of use surge protector is compatible with CAT5e, CAT6 and CAT6A cabling infratructure, and when used with STP cablings, the MRJEXTS does not require a spearate earth ground.

]]>https://mytechdecisions.com/facility/ditek-releases-new-surge-protector-poe-extender-devices/feed/0Blurring the Line Between the Digital and the Physical – the Digical Worldhttps://mytechdecisions.com/facility/blurring-line-digital-physical-digical-world/
https://mytechdecisions.com/facility/blurring-line-digital-physical-digical-world/#respondWed, 14 Feb 2018 10:00:22 +0000https://mytechdecisions.com/?p=10837The digical world is the one we are currently living in – where lines between online and digital media blur with the physical real world.

]]>We aren’t all walking around with computers in our bodies (though some people think that day will come), but people today rely on mobile technological devices for many things. The lines between the physical and digital worlds are blurring faster and faster, so much so that it might make sense to talk about a new hybrid digical world.

There’s a term in use about this change – digital disruption. This term describes the changes that occur when new technologies and business models affect the perceived benefits of goods and services that already exist. Examples of recent disruptions include Uber (disrupting the taxi industry), Netflix (changing the way video and on-demand content is delivered), AirBnb (affecting the hotel market) and Skype (the world’s largest phone company). An article by SiliconRepublic makes the interesting point that none of these companies actually own any physical assets – they simply use digital technologies to facilitate their services. Yet they operate in the real, physical world.

Rather than being a disruption, this is really more of a digital opportunity. The ubiquity of technology has made it possible to communicate with more people in more interesting ways than ever before in human history. Agility is key for modern-day businesses and organizations. If you can’t keep up with the changes happening right now, then you will fall behind. That’s why it’s vital to take a bit of a long view and think about what’s coming down the line in the near future.

To do that, you also have to take a quick look at the past: the World Wide Web was invented in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee, introduced to the public in 1991 and took off in 1995; computers got smaller and faster, mobile phones started becoming commonplace in the mid to late 90s (as did broadband networks), Wi-Fi was introduced in 1998, cloud computing really started in 2006, and smartphones exploded onto the market in 2007. Today, three-fourths of Americans own a smartphone (which is predicted to rise to over 80% by 2022), and rely on it for everything from work to private and social life.

Forbes contributor Gil Press recently outlined a summary and analysis of Forrester’s report “Top Technologies for Digital Predators, 2017”, which includes a chart showing four types of technological systems and the scope of change they initiate. We have things like insight platforms, security automation, customer journey analytics, and personal identity and data management giving companies that use them a major advantage over their competitors. Whole industries are being changed right now with the increase of cloud-native app platforms, real-time interaction management, edge computing and IoT analytics (the Internet of Things used to analyze patterns of data for market insights).

And the world as we know it will change drastically with hybrid wireless networks, interactive digital environments like augmented and virtual reality, cognitive computing models and artificial intelligence, intelligent agents (AI-like solutions that interact with users and learn their behavior, even making decisions for them) and IoT software solutions that map the physical world into a detailed digital one, with connected devices constantly talking to one another everywhere.

All these new tools are blurring the lines between the digital and analog worlds. These technologies are not just ideas – they are coming, right now, and will most likely be commonplace within ten to fifteen years. By the middle of this century, everything we do, everything we interact with, will get communicated to a vast, world-encompassing mind-like digital system of intelligent programs that will use our past behavior to guess what we want next, and offer it to us before we even know we want it. By the end of the century, this will be so pervasive and commonplace that people will wonder how on earth others survived without this technologically-networked system (much how, in 1999, we looked back at the pre-automobile era and wondered how people survived with just horses and trains for travel).

And while much of this upcoming change is digital, it’s really about people. Organizations are not going to become soulless places where people are some sort of hindrance to the efficient workings of technology. Instead, companies, schools and other facilities people spend time in (either physically or online) will become communities in themselves, and not just tied to a single venue. What is most important for organizations today, at the beginnings of all this change, is to see this as a real opportunity to humanize their offerings. Corporate culture needs to become human-focused – that is the real meaning of a digital-savvy organization in the 21st century.

Sean Matthews is President and CEO of Visix, Inc., headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Sean is a 21-year veteran of the visual communications industry. Since 2004, he has guided Visix through a comprehensive corporate reorganization, including growth relocations and name change, establishing field offices, outsourcing non-essential activities, introducing a suite of new products and services, growing revenues by more than 471 percent and tripling the number of employees to provide better products and services.

To reman relevant to their audience, organizations need to start embracing the blurring lines of the emerging digical world, even encouraging it. How can organizations today cope with this sea change? How can they begin to humanize their environments and culture? One answer already exists in the lobby, in the corridors, in the cafeteria – digital signage.

Digital signage is everywhere your audience is. Hopefully, they’re used to getting valuable information from your screens, and techniques such as gamification and limited-time offers keep them engaged and following your calls to action. Now it’s time to ratchet things up a notch by including things like online content, mobile interfaces and interactivity.

Using online content means pushing information that’s already on the web or network to your displays, through the use of RSS feeds, webpages, and real-time data – information like local weather and traffic, as well as internal metrics displayed as easy-to-read graphs. Social media boards are another way to bring part of your online presence to your digital signs. And you can also get people to interact with your online offerings by using short URLs and QR codes that take people to a dedicated webpage for more information.

An easy-to-use interactive interface let’s people sift through enormous amounts of information quickly and intuitively. If you have interactive touchscreens, people can simply open a browser window with the touch of a button right there at the display. They can view webpages specifically built to be used in conjunction with your digital signage (so you can control exactly the information available, as well as track how many people take advantage of the online information), or fill out forms, surveys and questionnaires, see training videos, etc. You can even ask them to post on your social networks, and they’ll see their comments immediately on the big screen.

Allowing people to take information with them on the go is another way to blur digital and physical lines. Literally anything with a screen is a digital sign, and that includes the smartphones and tablets people are already carrying around with them. An app that shows your digital signage playlist means that they don’t even have to be near the actual screens – just somewhere with a web connection. Wayfinding apps with turn-by-turn directions sent right to a smartphone also help make people’s lives easier and get them where they need to go. Adding beacons and geofence technologies lets people have locally-relevant data instantly.

Basically, we need to stop thinking of digital signage and these emerging technologies as a push system. They aren’t. These are tools to help people communicate across boundaries and are becoming another facet of everyday life.

You want to create an environment that immerses your audience in your organizational culture and offers rich and deep information for them to choose from and interact with. And as the technology evolves, the people who use it also evolve. You want your digital signage and communications – both internal and external – to evolve as well.

That’s how organizations of all types can turn digital disruption into digital opportunity, and remain at the cutting edge as the digital and physical worlds continue to blend into a digical one.

]]>Integrated Systems Europe is the largest pro AV trade show in the world. It’s no surprise, therefore, that there are countless new product innovations at ISE 2018, February 6-9 in Amsterdam.

In our short video, we run down some of the key products already announced at ISE 2018.

They include:

Leyard and Planar VersaLight Series modular LED display

The new Leyard VersaLight Series of modular LED displays, which is designed for digital signage, aims to broaden Planar’s market presence. The VersaLight Series of indoor and outdoor LED digital signage displays comes in a variety of pixel pitches from 2.5 to 8 millimeters and reflects a strategic move for Leyard and Planar. “Where Leyard has been really strong from the beginning was fine pitch,” says Steve Seminario, VP of product marketing, Leyard and Planar.

He goes on to point out that globally the narrow pitch LED video wall space is about $700,000. The rest of the video wall space “is maybe twice that.”

Crestron AirMedia 2.0 Wireless Presentation Technology

According to Crestron, AirMedia 2.0, which is built into Crestron presentation solutions — such as Crestron Mercury, DMPS3-4K-350-C, DMPS3-4K-250-C and Crestron FreeForm (CCS-F-2) — delivers the fastest, easiest, most manageable, and secure wireless presentation solution.

Mersive Solstice Kepler

The collaboration solutions provideris debuting a cloud-based room monitoring and meeting analytics service called Solstice Kepler. “We’re going to collect data from everything that’s going on in the meeting room, so we’re going to know what got connected in terms of the device,” says CEO Rob Balgley. “We’re going to know what application got used. We’re going to know how long.”

Nureva WM408i Video Wall System

Nureva launches its WM408i video wall solution. Nureva says the video wall system combines a high-definition (HD) ultra-short throw projector, along with a projected multitouch surface that creates an interactive working space.

InFocus’ Jupiter PixelNet 2.0 Distributed Display Wall System

InFocus Corporation recently announced the creation of Jupiter PixelNet 2.0 video distribution system, which company officials call “a significant update to the award-winning Jupiter PixelNet solution.” The new distributed display wall system “increases the density of processing power, connecting more sources and displays to a single input or output node, while providing centralized control to support a wide variety of installations with live audio and video, streaming data, and other real-time sources of information for control rooms, conference rooms, lobby displays, offices and classrooms,” according to InFocus.

]]>If you think there’s a lot of pressure on the players for both the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis next Sunday night, imagine how much stress those responsible for in-game production and Super Bowl technology at U.S. Bank Stadium are feeling.

Sure, the players from the winning team are the ones who’ll get all the glory—from trips to Disney World to parades down the winning city’s main thoroughfare to gaudy rings they’ll stash in a giant safe—but the eyes of the world are on every piece of the annual championship game.

Alpha Video & Audio has worked with the Minnesota Vikings, who play their home games in U.S. Bank Stadium, and the stadium authority for many years and has been involved with the integration of every sports stadium in the Twin Cities, says Jeffrey Volk, VP of the company’s sports and entertainment group.

Although Volk couldn’t get too specific about exactly what Alpha Video did at U.S. Bank Stadium to enhance the experience for the 70,000 fans who’ll pack the building on Super Bowl Sunday, he says fans can expect more of what they’ve seen and heard from Alpha in the past, including more replay channels and more cameras around the stadium.

A giant videowall is one of many screens that highlight Super Bowl Technology this year.

In the Super Bowl LII Spotlight

Alpha Video will support Van Wagner at the Super Bowl venue, with Van Wagner handling the in-venue show. Their work started about a week ago and will continue through three days after Super Bowl LII, since much of Alpha’s work involves temporary installations.

U.S. Bank Stadium features 18 Daktronics displays around the stadium, including a 13HD LED video board that sits low in the west end zone and measures 8,100 square feet.

That main display is 68 feet high and 120 feet wide and features two 43- x 15-foot wing displays. Those smaller displays can either supplement the main display or be joined to the main display to show one large image.

In the east end zone, there’s a 50-foot-high, 88-foot-wide video board with 25-x-15-foot wing displays on each side. Three ribbon boards circle the bowl: a 3.5- x 1,550-foot display on the upper concourse, a 2.5- x 1,475-foot one on the club level and a 5- x 225-foot one on the press level.

Alpha helped Vikings Entertainment Network, the team’s video production arm, outfit a video-control room that was technologically advanced enough to handle the stadium’s video needs and big enough for about 50 people.

The finished project is a hybrid of IP and baseband technologies that support 4K content capture and 1080p output to the video displays. The Vikings have eight in-game Sony HDC-4300 cameras that will operate in 4K, they can be routed to the StadiumVision network or to other places, says Volk.

As impressive as all of that is, Volk knows the Super Bowl means “more,” “bigger” and “better.”

“When the Super Bowl comes to town, the broadcast TV guys want way more,” he says.

“That means we’re adding a lot of temporary things to enhance the show. The core of what we’ve built has been functioning very well for two years now. What we’re doing for the Super Bowl is an expansion of what we’ve already built. There’s more innovation on the broadcast side than the in-house production team.”

No Worries About Super Bowl Technology Glitches

Volk knows there will be a lot of eyeballs on Alpha’s handiwork during the Super Bowl but he’s not overly concerned anything will happen that’ll put the company in the spotlight for the wrong reasons.

“The pressure comes in the fact it’s the Super Bowl,” says Volk. “When you’re adding temporary things you haven’t had a chance to vet, there’s a certain amount of pressure that comes with that. The goal is to test and test and test.

“If something happens, it’s about making sure it’s not obvious to the fans,” he says. That means building in redundancies and backup plans with everything they install, says Volk.

“This is a nice feather in our cap, a nice bit of cache,” he says, especially given the game will be played in Alpha’s proverbial backyard. “We’re excited to have the opportunity to play a very small role.”

Super Bowl Technology a Feather in Alpha’s Cap

Volk expects to meet with officials from some NFL teams leading up to Super Bowl Sunday, but says the company is one of only a handful that has expertise in this type of installation anyway.

“It doesn’t really create visibility for our brand since most people already know what we do, but it’s a good reinforcement of the work we do,” says Volk.

Either way, Alpha will soon wrap up its work on a new Vikings team headquarters that’ll open in April. That $2 million facility goes will be connected by fiber to U.S. Bank Stadium, even though it’s almost 30 miles away. The seven-figure investment pairs with the $7 million the Vikings put into their home stadium a few years ago.

]]>https://mytechdecisions.com/facility/alpha-video-integrates-technology-super-bowl-stadium/feed/0Take Short Huddle Room Trends Survey, Enter to Win $150 Amazon Gift Cardhttps://mytechdecisions.com/facility/huddle-room-trends-survey-enter/
https://mytechdecisions.com/facility/huddle-room-trends-survey-enter/#respondTue, 06 Feb 2018 10:00:34 +0000https://mytechdecisions.com/?p=10857We want to learn more about how end users use huddle rooms so we can better inform you. Take our short survey and enter for a chance to win $100 Amazon Gift Card.

]]>Huddle Rooms have become a trend in nearly every organization, from corporate offices to higher education facilities, healthcare to government, and beyond. The ability to step into a small space outfitted with technology to work alone or collaborate with a small group has proven invaluable for many companies. Still, plenty of organizations are unsure as to what should go in the huddle room.

We want to know more about how our end user audience uses their huddle rooms. So we’ve created a quick survey and are asking you to tell us a little bit about your organization and huddle room implementation. Just take our short survey and answer the questions within. As a thank you for your time, everyone that fills out the full survey will be entered to win a $150 Amazon Gift Card.

We know you’re busy, but we’d appreciate just a few short minutes to help us learn more about huddle room trends. The information we gather from this survey will help us create better resources around this important topic. In order to better understand how our audience thinks, and determine pain points, we need to hear from you first. Then we can reach out to working integrators to get you the information you need to do your job better.

Not only will you help us learn more about huddle rooms in different organizations, but the information we gather will help you learn about how other organizations are using their huddle rooms through future coverage of the information.

You’ll get some ideas on how to boost your huddle room technology further, impress the stakeholders at your company, and enable your workforce to better collaborate, present, and more.

Plus, you could win that $150 Amazon Gift Card for your troubles. It’s a win-win for everybody!

]]>For the 3rd annual Top New Technology Awards (TNT Awards), TechDecisions worked with a team of judges to highlight the new and outstanding commercial technology products to be shown at Integrated Systems Europe 2018 in Amsterdam.

Top New Technology Awards entrants were judged on their technological innovation, benefits to the integrator, and benefits to the end user.

“Integrators from all around the world today operate diverse companies that cover both the residential and commercial markets. The 2018 Top New Technology (TNT) Awards can help integrators filter their product decisions by identifying the best in new technology,” says Jason Knott, chief content officer, EH Media.

]]>https://mytechdecisions.com/facility/24-commercial-technology-tnt-awards-winners/feed/0What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas – Except the Smart City Technologyhttps://mytechdecisions.com/facility/happens-vegas-stays-vegas-except-smart-city-technology/
https://mytechdecisions.com/facility/happens-vegas-stays-vegas-except-smart-city-technology/#respondWed, 31 Jan 2018 15:00:38 +0000https://mytechdecisions.com/?p=10721Cities like Las Vegas are investing in smart city technology ecosystems to make communities safer and more efficient.

]]>According to the Las Vegas Sun, major cities, including Las Vegas, are starting to invest in smart city technologies. These technologies, which are part of “a fast-developing and potentially transformative segment of the tech world,” promise to make cities safer and more efficient.

In the case of Las Vegas, audio technologies by ShotSpotter are being tested to pinpoint the location of gunfire, which will allow law enforcement to respond to emergency situations quickly. With these solutions, and the future installment others for the city, Las Vegas leaders are working on “building a literal and figurative foundation for expansion of smart infrastructure.”

The Las Vegas Sun revealed other smart technology possibilities for Las Vegas and other cities, including:

Sensors that can detect cyclists and trigger light changes, which would save cyclists from having to get off their bikes and press crosswalk buttons

Utility poles and traffic signals that could contain video or audio technology to help law enforcement detect accidents and crimes

Signals sent to distracted drivers sitting at green lights, or drivers swerving into other lanes, which would improve traffic flow and accident reduction

As Las Vegas leadership prepares for making the city smarter, they are also focusing their attention on “creating laws and policies aimed at addressing privacy concerns and establishing procedures to guard against the sharing of personal data, all the while maintaining protection of multijurisdictional networks against hacking and data theft.”

What decision makers need to know:

While a new citywide infrastructure and smart technologies are beneficial, decision makers considering upgrades of this scale should keep privacy in mind. The Las Vegas Sun recommends that decision makers consider the notion of ever-present technology, such as cameras being fitted for street corners, which may give citizens the feeling that the government is watching them, or that their homes are being spied on. Plus, there might also be a concern that hackers could take over traffic lights, or feed false signals that would cause system crashes.

As a result, decision makers should consider equipping their smart technology teams with competent, trustworthy workers, and train their staff on how to collect data responsibly. Additionally, the Las Vegas Sun says that decision makers should make sure that the technologies installed into a smart city ecosystem serve the needs of the entire community, and to be transparent about what is being installed. Doing so will make citizens feel more comfortable about this technology being a part of their community, and minimize the feeling of invasiveness – “The technology is coming, and once people see that it works and has value, it will no longer seem so foreign.”

]]>https://mytechdecisions.com/facility/happens-vegas-stays-vegas-except-smart-city-technology/feed/0QSC Expands Q-SYS Control Capabilitieshttps://mytechdecisions.com/facility/qsc-expands-q-sys-control-capabilities/
https://mytechdecisions.com/facility/qsc-expands-q-sys-control-capabilities/#respondTue, 30 Jan 2018 15:00:35 +0000https://mytechdecisions.com/?p=10768QSC will show Q-SYS Control enhancements, including new Q-SYS Reflect management, drag and drop programming, and more at ISE 2018.

]]>QSC Q-SYS is an audio, video and control platform, and the control portion is getting a big boost, much of which will be on display at ISE 2018. In advance of the show in Amsterdam, QSC announces Q-SYS Reflect control monitoring and management technology. Meanwhile, it will demonstrate Q-SYS Control software feature licensing, drag-and-drop visual programming and native touch screen controllers at ISE 2018.

“I think there are a lot of great products on the market,” says Greg Mattson, QSC product manager for installed systems, adding that he has a lot of professional experience with a variety of automation manufacturers. “But I think we can do better. Long term, we think the concept of individual silo products is dying and we want to address that with a complete platform perspective.”

As such, audio, video and control platform QSC Q-SYS aims to provide system designers and customers with an end-to-end solution designed to work together. “Our industry talks about open standards as a way to interconnect these different products and we want to make sure we’re adopting these standards and levering them to the fullest, because it can be difficult to build cohesive systems if they’re not built to work together,” he says.

QSC’s goal with Q-SYS control is three-pronged, according to Mattson. “We want it to be well integrated. We want it to be simplified and we want it to be scalable.”

Here’s a look at what QSC Q-SYS Control is adding:

Q-SYS Reflect

Q-SYS Reflect, a technology announcement QSC is making in advan ISE 2017, is a powerful, simple-to-use monitoring and management platform built using modern web technologies for local and remote management of Q-SYS systems.

It includes Q-SYS Reflect Enterprise Manager, which simplifies the management of multiple Q-SYS systems and is architected to evolve with the changing needs of the IT/AV integrator, programmer, administrator and end user.

According to Mattson, Q-SYS Reflect is “an entirely new software platform intended to modernize the way customers interact with Q-SYS.”

It’s a management and monitoring platform. “Companies with multiple Q-SYS systems can easily review, configure each of their systems through a single web interface irrespective of their physical location, all benefiting from the latest in modern, secure computing and network technology.”

More on Q-SYS Reflect from QSC’s press release:

Addressing the fundamental need for IT/AV system administrators to easily monitor and manage their AV systems, Q-SYS Reflect is a new management platform for the Q-SYS eco-system, which will launch with two different versions. Q-SYS Reflect Core Manager runs natively on the Q-SYS Core processor and provides a more modern and secure interface for common, IT related tasks on the Q-SYS hardware. Q-SYS Reflect Enterprise Manager extends that web platform to the cloud and provides a hosted solution to monitor and manage multiple Q-SYS systems including Core processors and peripherals. Regardless of whether AV assets are distributed within a single building or across an entire global enterprise, Q-SYS Reflect delivers valuable real-time data and insights for monitoring, diagnostics and troubleshooting.

“We recognize that our customers want to avoid bloated management systems that require extraneous setup and deployment complexities, and will not settle for rough bolt-on AV modifications to existing building asset managers,” says Martin Barbour, Product Manager for Installed Systems, QSC. “Q-SYS Reflect will address those needs by providing streamlined setup and configuration with security and manageability at the forefront of the user experience.”

QSC will initially offer Q-SYS Reflect Enterprise Manager as a hosted cloud-based solution. In future product details and feature updates, QSC will include an on-premise version as well as a robust API, which will allow users to connect and integrate Q-SYS Reflect with other enterprise management applications and dashboards as desired.

Barbour adds, “When this technology reaches its fullest stage of maturity, it will be the first platform of its kind to deliver a holistic, global view of Q-SYS systems in a format that IT professionals have come to expect from their IT infrastructure.”

It’s not unique that QSC is claiming that its automation platform, Q-SYS Control, offers simple operation for end users, one-touch control and intelligent spaces. Where Q-SYS Control sets itself apart, according to Mattson, is in simplified control not just for end users but for AV programmers, installers and IT professionals supporting the system.

Q-SYS Control is “simple to install, [to] get into your infrastructure, and support,” he says. “Our platform is built on IT-friendly standards leveraging the power of Intel processors, the Linux operating system, and IEEE standards. This means it fits into your existing infrastructure, and once it’s in it’s designed to be accessible.”

It was important to QSC, Mattson adds, for Q-SYS Control to be “user friendly” to all stakeholders and to be easy to monitor from anywhere.

“Our programming environment uses a combination of drag-and-drop program elements, especially utilized for creating the UCIs, as well as a modern scripting language, a scripting engine that enhances our ability for control. This scripting engine is the backbone for our third-party plug-ins and enables our users to create custom scripts primarily using Lua. No proprietary languages on the Q-SYS platform.”

More on UCI and Custom Scripting Deployment from QSC’s press release:

The Q-SYS UCI Editor is an easy to use, drag-and-drop design tool that allows users to create custom, robust UCIs for native Q-SYS touch screen controllers, all without the need for any previous programming experience. This streamlined design tool dramatically improves efficiency in the traditional AV control design and commissioning workflow.

For installations that require more complex control integration, the Q-SYS Scripting Engine allows control plug-ins and scripts to easily integrate third-party devices with the Q-SYS Platform. It also provides the backbone for new Controller components that allow users to create custom scripts using modern, accessible scripting languages including Lua, an open-source, IT friendly programming language.

During AV system design development and testing, the full functionality of the Q-SYS Designer Software, including the Q-SYS UCI Editor and the Q-SYS Scripting Engine, are included at no cost while running in “emulation mode”. When it comes time to deploy a system design to the
Q-SYS Core processor, users can selectively and securely enable control-related features as needed on their Q-SYS Core processors using new node-locked, perpetual software licenses.

Drag-and-Drop Visual Code Editor

There is room for improvement when it comes to the traditional approach to automation system programming, according to QSC.

Mattson describes a traditional hardware-based control scenario with a control processor, audio processor, a few video cameras, video switching, some control points, touchscreen, amps and speakers that seems inefficient and short-sighted.

“The control programmer needs to program every single bit of integration, making it so that the control processor can talk to the audio processor,” he says. “The audio processor needs to be able to report back to the control processor. The control surface needs to query the control processor to get button feedback, amplifier status. It can be quite a mess to manage, leaving a large potential for error.”

In the new Q-SYS Control, meanwhile, it’s more streamlined. “All those devices report directly to the Core via standard IT network and all those pieces are native,” Mattson says. “And when we start to tie in third-party device control we have a robust plug-and-play framework that allows deeper integrations.”

A big challenge with traditional automation programming, according to Mattson, is how difficult it can be to react to a change on the fly. He says it’s easier for Q-SYS Control and offers an example.

“I built a conference room. I have Q-SYS in my meeting space and on my touchscreen I have some source selections and some environmental controls. I have a dialer, but for some reason I left out a camera and have since realized the error of my ways. So if I want to add that camera to my project I can add it without any additional programming. A little drag-and-drop, a quick push to the system, and I’ve added camera controls to my project with no programming required.”

More on Drag-and-Drop Visual Code Editor from QSC’s press release:

For the novice programmer or IT professional just getting started with AV programming, or the seasoned AV professional doing rapid prototyping, the new Q-SYS Block Controller component leverages the power of the Q-SYS Scripting Engine and includes a state-of-the-art visual programming tool that brings modern software design paradigms to the AV programming industry.

Based on technology initially developed by Google and MIT and currently deployed commercially in dozens of products and platforms, this open source visual programming tool uses interlocking, graphical blocks to represent common code programming concepts including logical expressions, loops and more. This approach to simple and rapid code creation and editing allows for the composition of simple or sophisticated AV scripts while ensuring that the generated code is always syntactically correct.

New TSC-G2 Series Touch Screen Controllers

QSC caps off its enhancements to Q-SYS Control by introducing at ISE 2018 new capacitive PoE LCD touch screens. The company says the new line, which is native to the Q-SYS platform, is equipped with IPS technology for incredible off-axis viewing, and require no dedicated control hardware to operate.

TSC-G2 Series is available in four new sizes – 4.7-inch, 5.5-inch, 8.0-inch and 11.6-inch – and offer wall mount options and table top stand accessories.

Most of the Q-SYS Control features, including the TSC-G2 Series Touch Screen Controllers, will be on display at ISE 2018 at stand 7-E200 (Q-SYS Reflect will not be demonstrated at ISE 2018), and visitors can get a hands-on demo.

With Q-SYS Control, QSC expects to disrupt the automation landscape and senior VP Markus Winkler says it is in a position to do so.

“The Q-SYS Control expansion is a testament to development principles of the Q-SYS Platform, which is keeping a firm technology alignment with the IT industry and focus on software-based functionality advances,” Winkler says.

“We have used software within Q-SYS to introduce AEC processing, conference room video camera switching, and the industry’s first real-time AV&C software deployment on commercial off-the-shelf IT hardware. Software-based control is the ideal next step in offering the most flexible and scalable IT/AV platform on the market.”